Rival US dailies join to boost digital efforts

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

New York Times and Washington Post join forces for digital news efforts.

Two archrival U.S. newspapers, the Washington Post and New York Times, agreed Thursday to work together to find ways to improve interaction with readers online.

With a grant from the Knight Foundation, the publications agreed to work with the group Mozilla “to build a new content and commenting platform that will allow audiences to more deeply engage with media coverage and help news organizations everywhere better manage user comments and contributions,” a joint statement said.
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The project aims to go beyond simple comments from readers - it will allow them to submit pictures or links, track discussions and manage their contributions and online identities.

“This isn’t another commenting platform for publishers; it’s a publishing platform for readers,” said Greg Barber, director of digital news projects at the Washington Post, recently acquired by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.